Martini: Head Clog I

Martini: Head Clog I. Glitch series. Acrylic on canvas, 18 x 18 inches, 2016 by Sarah Atlee. $910 For purchase inquiries, contact Cerulean Gallery at 214.564.1199

According to the AV Artifact Atlas, head clog banding is a glitch that occurs when dirt or debris clogs one of the video heads in a MiniDV or DVCam. "Typically, a head clog will appear as wide alternating lines of frozen video or an alternating pattern of color indicating a loss of read/write capability at the video head."

It's also what happens to me about three sips into one of these.

You guys, I'm addicted. To STRIPES. Just can't get enough of 'em lately. I stripe socially. I stripe alone. I stripe in the morning. I stripe before bed. Sometimes I stripe all day long. Best problem I've ever had.

Are you like me, and you want more stripes in your life? I suggest starting with my Stripes Are Cheap Therapy board on Pinterest.

About the Glitch Series

In the Glitch series, I use vibrant acrylic paintings to reimagine traditional still lifes for the digital age. My recent compositions combine tempting, succulent foods with "glitches" painted directly onto the canvas. An avocado is interrupted by the irregular curves of a cracked screen. The natural beauty of an heirloom tomato is marred by low-resolution errors and broken pixels.

Historically, still life paintings are windows onto impossibly perfect worlds. This illusion of perfection continues into our daily lives on the Internet, as we live from one Insta-worthy moment to another. Why not use the flaws of online technology to break into that illusion?

Martini: Head Clog I will be available at Cerulean Gallery as part of the exhibition On Edge Part I, featuring work by Sarah Atlee, Fritz Danner, Nic Noblique, and Victoria Taylor-Gore, on display 16 September - 28 October 2016. Visit Cerulean Gallery to learn more.

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672 Tiny Paintings

Sushi Leftovers Acrylic on canvas, 18 x 18 inches, 2016 by Sarah Atlee. $910 For purchase inquiries, contact Cerulean Gallery at 214.564.1199 or caroline@theceruleangallery.com. UPDATE: SOLD

This post first appeared on my Patreon page. Join today for all the goodies!

How did I complete 672 tiny paintings?

One at a time.

I'm loving the grid these days. We're old friends. It's a beautiful device, bringing order out of chaos, or merely giving chaos something to lean against.

I often use a grid for making a preliminary pencil drawing on a canvas. It saves me a lot of time, and it's easy to cover up with subsequent layers of paint. The fun starts when I decide to let some or all of the grid be part of the final image.

In the case of Sushi Leftovers, I created a much smaller grid than normal. This is an 18" x 18" canvas broken down into three-quarter-inch squares. 24 squares times 24 is 576. But wait, where are the other 96 tiny paintings? Answer: I always paint my edges. That's four more groups of 24 for a grand total of 672.

I thought based on my experience that breaking one complicated image down into a bunch of smaller, simpler ones might make things easier. Not in this case! But this series is all about the play between digital imagery and traditional painting. So the squares became pixels. Some of the pixels are functioning normally. Others are ...broken.

Enjoy!

Sushi Leftovers will be part of the On Edge exhibition at Cerulean Gallery, 16 September - 28 October 2016.

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Lap Work

Lap Work. Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches, 2016 by Sarah Atlee. $895 For purchase inquiries, contact Cerulean Gallery at 214.564.1199 or caroline@theceruleangallery.com.

Note: This entry first appeared on my Patreon page. Join to see the newest news and receive art rewards!

What is this a painting of?

Well, it's my lap. My lap while I was working on hand-binding a quilt. See the pins? Can you spot the needle and thread? That's the back of the quilt I was finishing.

The burgundy in the upper left is my yoga pants'ed leg. (I'm wearing those pants right now. How about that?) Below that, the hem of a sundress. The lower portion of the painting is dominated by my 100% cotton, Fair Trade, hand-woven-in-Guatemala apron. (Thanks, Mom!)

Did I paint all those little squiggles by hand? You bet I did. Here's a close-up:

I'm very pleased with how this painting turned out. Some of them just come out right on the first try - this is one of those.

Coming Soon

Lap Work will be in my next major exhibition at Cerulean Gallery (Amarillo, Texas) which opens on September 16, 2016. I'd love to see you there!

Detritus, aka Making the Art Sausage

Note: This entry first appeared on my Patreon page, which is no longer active.

When we see a work of art hanging on a wall or seated on a pedestal, it looks like it appeared there by magic. You might get a hint of the work that went into its creation - brush strokes, fingerprints, chisel marks, and so on. But what don't you see?

The process of making a painting bleeds over into my surrounding workspace. There are a lot of leftover bits. Why let them go to waste?

Paint on the Palette

I'm using a glass palette these days for my acrylic paints. It's easier to clean than plastic, but there's an awkward side effect. When my acrylic paint begins to dry on the palette, it forms flakes that absolutely do not mix with wet paint. Grr.

My solution is to take a paper towel, fold it in quarters longways, saturate it with water, and squeeze out my paint onto that. I still use the glass for mixing color, and clean the mixtures off when I'm done.

If I unfold the paper towel carefully, the next day I have this cool object that's just begging to be collaged somewhere.

All the Trimmings

I've been using my extra paint to make postcards. They are standard-size and ready to be stamped and mailed. Or you can just set them on a shelf and enjoy.

I make these by cutting 9 x 12 Bristol board into quarters. However, there's a half-inch that needs to be trimmed in order to meet the USPS' standard postcard dimensions. I've been making a lot of postcards, and these strips are really accumulating. What will they become?

Trading Cards

Are you familiar with Artist Trading Cards? They're made where are collecting and business cards intersect. They're tiny - 2.5 x 3.5 inches - and that's where the standardization ends. I use ATC's as a great place to use up extra paint, switch gears, relax with a small piece, and then have something cool to give away or swap.* Will my Patreon patrons be getting Artist Trading Cards at some point? [Yes they did.]

* You can buy ATCs on eBay. But I prefer them to be gifted or traded hand-to-hand.

Last Week to See Wyld Flowerz at STASH

Sorry Not Sorry. Acrylic on canvas panel, 7 x 5 inches (12 x 9 framed), 2015 by Sarah Atlee. $225

It's been a trip. Many thanks to STASH for providing me with the opportunity to show my work.

Wyld Flowerz is on display through this Wednesday, November 11.